Essays on Mankind and Political ArithmeticPetty, William, Sir
History
Essays on Mankind and Political Arithmetic
Petty, William, Sir
London (England) -- Population; Population
It is here to be noted, that in this table we have assigned a different
number of years for the time of doubling the people in the several ages
of the world, and might have done the same for the several countries of
the world, and therefore the said several periods assigned to the whole
world in the lump may well enough consist with the 360 years especially
assigned to England, between this day and the Norman Conquest; and the
said 360 years may well enough serve for a supposition between this time
and that of the world’s being fully peopled; nor do we lay any stress
upon one or the other in this disquisition concerning the growth of the
city of London.
We have spoken of the growth of London, with the measures and periods
thereof; we come next to the causes and consequences of the same.
The causes of its growth from 1642 to 1682 may be said to have been as
follows, viz.:—From 1642 to 1650, that men came out of the country to
London, to shelter themselves from the outrages of the Civil Wars during
that time; from 1650 to 1660, the royal party came to London for their
more private and inexpensive living; from 1660 to 1670, the king’s
friends and party came to receive his favours after his happy
restoration; from 1670 to 1680, the frequency of plots and parliaments
might bring extraordinary numbers to the city; but what reasons to assign
for the like increase from 1604 to 1642 I know not, unless I should pick
out some remarkable accident happening in each part of the said period,
and make that to be the cause of this increase (as vulgar people make the
cause of every man’s sickness to be what he did last eat), wherefore,
rather than so to say _quidlibet de quolibet_, I had rather quit even
what I have above said to be the cause of London’s increase from 1642 to
1682, and put the whole upon some natural and spontaneous benefits and
advantages that men find by living in great more than in small societies,
and shall therefore seek for the antecedent causes of this growth in the
consequences of the like, considered in greater characters and
proportions.
Now, whereas in arithmetic, out of two false positions the truth is
extracted, so I hope out of two extravagant contrary suppositions to draw
forth some solid and consistent conclusion, viz.:—
The first of the said two suppositions is, that the city of London is
seven times bigger than now, and that the inhabitants of it are 4,690,000
people, and that in all the other cities, ports, towns, and villages,
there are but 2,710,000 more.
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